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Hester Apartments
Calgary
Statement of Significance
Description of Historic Place
The Hester Apartments, built 1910, is a three-storey, red-brick building situated in Calgary’s inner-city Beltline neighbourhood. The ten-unit Arts and Crafts-style apartment house is distinguished by its three-storey front verandah and bay windows.
Heritage Value
The Hester Apartments are of heritage significant for its high-quality Arts and Crafts-style architecture, and is one of a small number of buildings in this part of the Beltline neighbourhood to symbolize the area’s historical, upscale, residential character.
The apartment house was commissioned for Joseph Hester, who arrived to Calgary around 1904, becoming the president and treasurer of the Alberta Building Block Company; also building apartments, homes and stores. Prior to his arrival in Calgary, Hester had lived most of his life in London and New York as a manufacturers’ agent. In Calgary, he became active in the Children’s Aid Society and served on the City’s Board of Health. Hester lived in a now-demolished home at the corner of Fourth Street and 14 Avenue SW, immediately south of the Hester Apartments. By 1908 Hester had retired, but successfully won an aldermanic by-election in 1912. Despite Hester’s win he remained in Calgary and on City Council until only the next year. In 1921 the Hester Apartments was sold by Hester’s family.
The Hester Apartments is an exceptional and uncommon example in Calgary of Arts and Crafts-style influences adapted to a small-scale apartment house. Distinguishing the building is its three-storey front verandah, high-quality red-brick facades, and bay windows. Gables with mock half timbering, the shingled shed roof dormers and triangular eave brackets are characteristic Arts and Crafts-style features. Shingle-clad rear dormers are bisected by broad brick chimneys and exemplify the rustic, informal precepts of Arts and Crafts-style design.
Interiors of the building are notable for their high degree of original integrity and spaciousness and are mostly two-bedroom units with dining rooms and pantries. Some distinguishing features include pocket doors, built-in hutches, front and rear verandah access and tiled bathrooms with claw-foot tubs. Originally, the building contained six two-bedroom suites, and a three-bedroom attic suite; the basement contained ample storage rooms for each occupant, as well as a caretaker’s room.
As a testament to the building’s high standard architecture, all facades of the building - rather than just the front - are finished to the same degree, which is less typical for a mid-block building. The building’s solid-brick construction also sets it apart from many other buildings in Calgary of the period which had brick veneers over a wood frame.
The building’s handsome appearance, location and high-standard amenities and features originally served to attract affluent, professional-class occupants. Notably, one of the physicians to occupy the building (1912-17) was Dr. Rosamond Leacock, Calgary’s first pathologist, and sister of the famous Canadian humorist Stephen Leacock.
While the architect is unknown, the building was constructed by McDougall and Forester, a firm which constructed many of Calgary’s landmark buildings. The Hester Apartments is almost identical to the now-demolished, 1908, Georgian Court Apartments (621-5 Ave. SW) and was almost certainly the work of the same architect.
The Hester Apartments is also valued as a tangible reminder of this part of the Beltline’s historical, upscale, residential character, which has changed significantly due to much redevelopment since the 1950s. When the Hester Apartments was developed, the city’s high-end residential district was bounded by Twelfth to Fourteenth Avenues SW and First and Eighth Streets. With Central Memorial Park as a focal point, the district contained the most substantial and elaborates residences in the city, including several, nearby apartment houses such as the Marlborough Mansions, Dufferin Lodge, and the ‘Wigwam’ - none of which still exist. With the loss of such buildings, and the many substantial houses, the Hester Apartments serves to recall the area’s original character.
Character-Defining Elements
The exterior character-defining elements of the Hester Apartments include, but are not limited to its:
- three-storey plan with raised basement and attic;
- red-brick facades laid in common bond; cast-concrete window sills and lintels; parged and scored concrete foundation;
- hipped roof with wood-shingle cladding; lower cross gables with mock half-timbered ends comprising unpainted pebble-dash stucco fill; wood-shingle-clad, shed-roof dormers; wood-shingle-clad, gable-roof dormers incorporating broad, red-brick chimneys; overhanging eaves with tongue-and-groove wood soffits and triangular brackets;
- open, wood-structure, three-storey, front verandahs with squared columns and newel posts, plain balusters, wood tongue-and-groove ceilings, and wood floors;
- open, wood-structure, three-storey, rear verandahs / fire escapes with squared columns and newel posts, plain balusters;
- fenestration, including angled and squared bay windows; wooden sash windows comprising hung-sash 12-over-1 and 9-over1 windows, multi-pane casement-sash windows (dormers), and multi-pane fixed-sash windows (basement);
- central, front and rear entries; wooden, glazed and panelled, front and rear verandah doors;
The interior character-defining elements of the Hester Apartments include, but are not limited to its:
Foyer, Staircase and Stair Halls:
- the foyer’s patterned, unglazed- porcelain-tile floor;
- the foyer’s wooden, panelled, double doors with multi-pane glazing;
- open ‘dogleg’ staircase with plain, squared wooden balusters and newel posts;
- narrow-width wood flooring;
- wooden trim comprising corniced window and doorway surrounds with beaded moulding and plain baseboards.
Six Suites:
- Plan / configuration of each suite consisting of: two bedrooms, corridor, living room, dining room, pantry, kitchen, bathroom;
Finishes common to each of the six suites:
- wooden, six-panel, double pocket doors to divide living room from dining room;
- plain wooden window and door surrounds and baseboards;
- wood-panel doors (some with multi-pane glazing);
- built-in, wooden, pantry hutch with shelves and cupboards;
- wooden tongue-and-groove wainscoting (in kitchen, bathroom, pantry);
- cast-iron radiators;
- unglazed white and black porcelain tile bathroom flooring laid with patterns;
- cast-iron and enamel claw-foot bathtubs.
Location
| Street Address: |
1306 - 4 Street SW |
| Community: |
Calgary |
| Boundaries: |
Portion of Lot A, Plan 5760GA |
| Contributing Resources: |
Building: 1
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ATS Legal Description:
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Mer |
Rge |
Twp |
Sec |
LSD |
5
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1
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24
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15
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04
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PBL Legal Description (Cadastral Reference):
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Plan |
Block |
Lot |
Parcel |
5760GA
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A
|
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Latitude/Longitude:
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Latitude |
Longitude |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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51.040136 |
-114.071209 |
Digital Maps |
NAD83 |
UTM Reference:
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Northing |
Easting |
Zone |
CDT |
Datum Type |
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5658777 |
284702 |
|
Digital Maps |
NAD83 |
Recognition
| Recognition Authority: |
Local Governments (AB) |
| Designation Status: |
Municipal Historic Resource |
| Date of Designation: |
2012/07/30 |
Historical Information
| Built: |
1910 - 1910 |
| Period of Significance: |
N/A |
| Theme(s): |
Peopling the Land : Settlement
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| Historic Function(s): |
Residence : Multiple Dwelling
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| Current Function(s): |
Residence : Multiple Dwelling
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| Architect: |
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| Builder: |
McDougall and Forester
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| Context: |
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Additional Information
| Object Number: |
4664-0299 |
| Designation File: |
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| Related Listing(s): |
4665-0736
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| Heritage Survey File: |
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| Website Link: |
www.calgary.ca/heritageinventory |
| Data Source: |
Heritage Planning (File 11-113), Land Use Planning and Policy, City of Calgary |
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